When China’s leader Xi Jinping welcomes his American counterpart in Beijing this Wednesday, Donald Trump will remember his last visit in 2017, when he was courted with diligence and dinner in the Forbidden City, an honor no US president had received before.
This week’s reception promises to be just as grand and will include a stop at Zhongnanhai, the exclusive complex where China’s top leaders live and work.
The agenda will also be just as thorny, as Iran will be a new source of tension, along with trade, technology and Taiwan.
However, much has changed as Trump returns to a stronger and much more assertive China.
After entering an unprecedented third term, an ambitious Xi has pressed ahead with his plans to create “new productive forces” with large investments in renewable energy, robotics and man-made intelligence.
If the American president and his government want to glimpse the future that Beijing has been seeking for the last decade, they have to look beyond the imposing heart of the capital, where they will spend much of their time.
In the remote and rugged north, solar and wind power now dominate vast landscapes.
In the industrial south, automation is reconfiguring factories and supply chains, and megacities like Chongqing have become subject environments for social media posts. influencers.
Thanks to billions in state funding, Chongqing, a booming industrial hub deep in the country’s southwest, has become a powerful symbol of a changing China that is embracing new technologies, new trade and a new concept — trending — to show the world a kinder face.
Ali Wyne, a researcher on US-China relations at the think tank International Crisis Community, believes that back in 2017, China was trying to show that it was on equal footing with the US.
“The Chinese delegation understandably spent enormous diplomatic effort trying to give the impression that Xi was geopolitically equal to Trump,” he notes.
“What strikes me is that this time that statement is not necessary on the part of the Chinese,” adds Wyne.
Washington now recognizes China as a “close peer,” says the researcher, who represents Beijing as “possibly the most powerful competitor the US has faced in its history.”
The Liziba metro station is famous because it is a building that “swallows” the metro Credit: Getty
“USA first” vs. China’s long term
Trump may well be the most mercurial foreign leader China has ever known.
He even has a nickname here: Comrade Chuan Xiengó, which means “Trump, the Nation Builder,” a nickname used jokingly online by many Chinese who believe his divisive policies and trade wars have contributed to China’s rise by weakening the US’s global standing.
“He doesn’t care about the consequences at all,” says a middle-aged man on vacation in Chongqing who preferred not to identify himself.
“You should know that we share the same world. It’s a world village. You shouldn’t always put the US first,” he adds as he stands among the crowds gathering at viewing points to gaze at Chongqing’s crowded, neon-lit skyline.
“China has been developing forward-thinking strategies for decades,” he continues, as the world’s “cyberpunk capital” glows behind him at dusk.
Chongqing has been carved out of the mountains, as the builders had nowhere to go but up.
Roads climb and wind around steep hillsides, while the subway passes under and through layers of buildings.
It all overlaps to create what travel journalists have dubbed China’s “8D” city.
Like the tourists stationed above, the travelers on the boats sailing below try to get the best image: the vertical landscape that looms over the Yangtze River in shades of electric blue, magenta and red.
It is a city that offers a window into China’s attempt to rival American power in more ways than one.
China has been honing its “soft power” and lifted visa requirements for tourists from more than 70 countries.
About 2 million of them put Chongqing on their must-see list last year, along with Beijing and Shanghai.
However, Chongqing’s spectacular growth comes at a price.
Its construction has represented one of the greatest efforts of sustained urban construction in modern history.
And the local government, with a population of more than 30 million people, is now deeply in debt. A weak economy and a struggling real estate sector don’t help.
Beyond the city’s futuristic skyline are older neighborhoods where workers sort packages or sell fruits and vegetables in hopes of earning the equivalent of a few dollars a day.
Trump’s tariffs and now the US-Israel war on Iran are exacerbating pressure points in the Chinese economy, as housing prices fall, unemployment rises and low consumption persists.
Despite all this, the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party has remained firm.
Many Chinese are hesitant to talk about politics and, although they have a message for Trump, they do not want to share his name.
“I want to tell Trump to stop stirring things up,” says a nail technician whose investments have been affected after the Middle East crisis.
Still, some young people see the US as a model of freedom and opportunity.
“When I think of the US, I think of freedom and that people in that country can find their personality and discover their potential,” says a fashion student who is on vacation with her friend.
“It is a country full of creativity and wisdom, and many young Chinese would like to study there,” he adds.
That dream is now more uncertain due to strained ties between the two superpowers in recent years.
But it has also led Chinese engineers to drive innovation in their country.
The race: from robots to electric vehicles
In an iconic two-story laboratory located in one of Chongqing’s many new business centers, a group of preschoolers laugh as they watch a robotic fish swim in a tank.
Other humanoid robots come to life and show off their kung-fu moves or funny dances.
The children are eager to show themselves in front of the BBC cameras and the teacher helps them practice their English by making them repeat in unison: “This robotic can dance!”
China already has the largest number of industrial robots in its factories, and the government plans to invest some $400 billion in robotics this year alone.
Chongqing is at the center of this investment.
However, here and across the country robotics may need US help.
Robots need a brain that works quickly, which is why China wants to buy more high-end AI chips from the American company Nvidia.
This could be a sticking point in this week’s meeting.
In 2022, the Biden administration attempted to stop Chinese manmade intelligence and robotics by denying them cutting-edge semiconductors.
Trump relaxed that policy and last year paved the way for Nvidia to start selling some of its advanced chips to China, but not its newer ones.
As China and the US battle for technological supremacy, analysts believe the rise of AI raises greater concerns.
Some fear that someone with a notebook computer in a bunker anywhere could hack health services or find codes to launch nuclear weapons, and argue that now is the time for both leaders to think about the common good and not great power competition.
The competition will undoubtedly set the agenda. China has already done everything it can to ensure that it is not dependent on the US as its predominant trading partner.
China’s exports to the US have fallen by around 20% in recent years and the US is now China’s third largest trading partner, behind Southeast Asia and the European Union.
The ostentation of Trump’s latest visit did not stop the US from imposing huge tariffs on Chinese goods, and Beijing learned its lesson.
When Trump became the presidential candidate in 2024, Chinese officials got to work.
They attended think tank meetings in Washington as they listened to him warn, once again, that he would put a stop to what he considered unfair trade practices by China.
And when Trump imposed tariffs last year, China was the only country that did not bow down.
The big question this week is whether the fragile trade truce will hold or lead to a more substantial deal.
The past year has certainly emboldened Beijing.
“We do not depend on the American market,” says Lucia Chen, who sells electric cars for Sahiyoo, a company in Chongqing, a key city in this campaign for self-sufficiency.
Chongqing leads the country in auto manufacturing, underpinning China’s position as the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer.
Xi advocated establishing direct rail connections from China to Europe through Central Asia, which cost about $5 billion, and Chen sees these routes as useful for selling more products.
“I’m quite optimistic about the future development of Chongqing’s electric vehicle industry,” he tells me as we tour the factory.
“All my family and friends have switched from fuel cars to electric cars. Due to the war in Iran, the price of gasoline has gone up a lot and many buyers are considering purchasing an electric vehicle for the first time,” he continues.
Even as the crisis in the Middle East drags on, Trump is coming to China, in part, to try to end the war.
It will wait for China’s help to reach an agreement with its friend Tehran, a further sign of the role Beijing now plays on the world stage.
The US president also likes to boast that he has a good relationship with Xi and thinks he can negotiate with China’s leader.
Plus, you’ll want to get something tangible out of this summit, and if you come to Beijing and are able to walk away saying that you’ve convinced the Chinese to buy more American products, you might see that as a victory.
A glimpse of the future?
For China, victory may lie in a smooth, well-choreographed state visit.
A trade deal would be a huge relief, but even without that, a US presidential visit after nearly a decade reinforces Xi’s message: China is open to business and the world.
“I feel that China is increasingly connected to the world, increasingly integrated with the international community,” says a photographer from Chongqing.
“Before it was very difficult to see people with blonde hair like you, but now I meet many foreigners. We are all like one family,” he adds.
The man is one of many who work in a strange activity that has arisen here.
At o On the river bank, in front of the place where a local train enters one of the residential towers, there is a line of visitors with their mouths open.
A woman shouts instructions to her husband to take the image properly when the train begins to arrive; then chew as if it were a delicious meal.
It seems like a ridiculous trend, but “eating a train in Chongqing” is viral.
A man – well over 70 years old – jokes that participating in this social media show helps him “be younger at heart.”
This is the China Xi wants the world to see more of, as he tries to present himself as a model of stability, in contrast to an unpredictable Trump.
Just a little over a year after Trump’s return to power, the world order has changed markedly, strengthening Beijing’s position.
His “America first” approach has sent allies and rivals reeling over on-again, off-again tariffs, while Beijing rolled out the red carpet for a parade of political leaders from the West, including Britain, Canada and Germany.
Of course, this is far from the full picture.
There is also widespread surveillance, strict state control over all media outlets, and no dissent or criticism against the government or the country’s leaders is tolerated.
But in Chongqing, many visitors see what may seem like a movie scene from the future.
The city’s transformation can be read as a success story or as a warning sign.
Either way, it gives the world — and Trump — a preview of what China hopes for the future.
This article was originally written in English and we used a man-made intelligence tool to translate it. BBC journalists reviewed the Spanish text before publication. Learn more about how we use AI.
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